Australia falling behind in education due to NAPLAN: Pasi Sahlberg

Australia puts too much emphasis on NAPLAN testing and blames poor results on the family background of students rather than the inequity in the education system, one of the world's leading educators has warned.

Pasi Sahlberg, a former director-general of education in Finland and now a visiting professor at Harvard University, said Australia had a unique chance to tackle educational inequity and be a world leader through its Gonski needs-based funding model.

But Dr Sahlberg, who will address the NSW Teachers Federation on Monday, said the federal government's decision not to fund the two most financially significant years of Gonski was ''very surprising'' and a major setback for education.

He said the Gonski model was being cited internationally as one of the best and most equitable funding models in the world, and without it public education in Australia would suffer significantly.

''I hear much less in Australia about equity in education than I hear in many other countries,'' Dr Sahlberg said.

''You could almost say that unless school funding becomes more transparent and fair in terms of taking into account a school's needs and an individual's needs, it is very difficult to make significant improvements in equity.''

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The most recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests of mathematics, reading and science show Australia is being outperformed by a growing number of countries, particularly from east Asia.

Dr Sahlberg said Australia was falling behind because disadvantaged students missed out. ''If you look at the Australian performance in PISA, it has been downhill since the beginning, but I often argue it is not that the quality of teachers or quality of school is worse, but because the equity in schools has become worse.''

Dr Sahlberg said Australia blamed the socio-economic status of students on poor achievement rather than creating a school system where all children, regardless of their background, had the opportunity to thrive.

''Canada and the Nordic countries say things like 'I want a great school for every child' but here the discourse is much more about what can be measured, and I think this probably indicates there is a less belief that everybody can learn if there are the right conditions and necessary support,'' he said.

Australia should stop its obsession with being ''the best of the best'' and aim to have a ''good school for every child''.

Australia was too driven by standardised assessments, further widening a gap between students, Dr Sahlberg said.

''Standardised testing is driving inequity in the system because the nature of the tests is normally limited to maths and reading and sometimes science, which narrows the scope of success in the system,'' he said.